This invention relates to animal sticking carried out during the slaughtering of animals for meat production.
In the past, the operation of sticking an animal has been carried out manually by a slaughterman. The operation involves plunging a knife into the animal after stunning so as to sever blood vessels, causing rapid bleeding and resulting in death by exsanguination. The animal is stunned (electrically or mechanically) and then after removal in an unconscious state from the "knocking box" is hung by the rear legs. The slaughterman plunges a knife into the thoracic inlet of the animal's chest cavity and severs the main arteries adjacent to the heart causing rapid bleeding upon removal of the knife. Manual operations, including sticking, add substantially to the cost of processing animals for meat.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,625 in the name of Nijhuis there is shown a mechanical sticking implement which comprises a hollow knife which is pivoted into an operative position in which it penetrates a pig's neck and severs the carotid arteries. This mechanical sticking arrangement may be ineffective if it does not accurately locate and cut the carotid arteries. Also the bleeding may be relatively slow.